ACC Justifies FY2025 Budget

By Mahmoud Sillah

The Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Augustine Foday Ngobie has on Tuesday 27th August 2024 gave a justification for exceeding the budget ceiling that was given to them by the Ministry of Finance.

He made this justification during their budget presentation for FY2025 at the ongoing bilateral budget discussion in the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall George Street Freetown.

He noted that in consonance with the number of recoveries, it is prudent that government through the Ministry of Finance has given due consideration to their budget.

Highlighting on the breakdown of recurrent budget, he said they are planning to expend NLe 13,607,800 on administrative and operational cost and NLe 6,392,200 on motor vehicle and equipment which therefore necessitate that the Ministry of Finance and stakeholders present at the ongoing bilateral budget discussion gave consideration to their budget for them to continue recovering stolen funds from corrupt officials. He also highlighted on the development budget estimate which are the final payment of their headquarters office to the contractor which stands at NLe 3,056,491 million, canopy for armed guards NLe 25,000, office block at security post NLe 5,000,000, construction of ACC regional office building in Bo NLe 5,000,000, fencing of Kenema office NLe 2,000,000 and construction of Port Loko office NLe 5,000,000 are clear reasons for them to slightly go above the budget ceiling.

Giving the details explanation of ACC cases, he said between 2023 and 2024 high court cases in 2023 was 13, in 2024 16, for both last year and this year. He added that the number of Appeal Court cases stand at 7 and they are awaiting one judgement from the Appeal’s Court. He disclosed further that the total number of Supreme Court cases from last year to now stands at 3 and they are awaiting one Supreme Court judgement. He stated further that the total number of convictions in the high Court is two in 2023 and one in 2024 and acquittal in the high Court from last year to now is zero and cases awaiting judgement in the high Court are nine in 2023 and 13 in 2024.

He concluded by throwing light on summary of key activities in 2025 such as deepening public awareness and strengthening community engagements on Corruption issues, enhance partnership and collaboration for effective information sharing on the fight, integrate Anti-Corruption issues in schools and tertiary institutions, create a public interface with the commission and corruption risk assessment in MDAs.